Hollow No More
by Natters13
Summary: Charles and Raven are sent to boarding school after the death of their stepfather and their mother's mental breakdown. This story shows how their lives change as they grow up, make new friends and face new perils. First Class based, eventual Charles/Erik.
1. Here Goes Nothing!

**Howdy! This is my first attempt at writing for X-Men so please be gentle with me. It's based on the First Class characters but I might add some more as the story progresses. I haven't decided whether they'll have their powers in this story or not so I'm going to put a vote up on my profile and let anyone who bothers to read this decide for me, the story I have planned could work with or without their powers. The title is a song by Delta Goodrem and Brain McFadden, it came on my itunes while I was writing this.**

**It's eventually going to be Erik/Charles so if you don't like it then I'm sorry. I'll give fair warning before I post those chapters but it won't be for a very long time yet so feel free to read until then and gloss over the slash parts. What I have planned will span the 7 years of English secondary school life so bear with me if it's a bit slow to get going. **

**I'm looking for a beta for this story so PM me if you're interested! And let me know what you think! I really hope people like this, it's one of my favourite ideas so far.**

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><p>"I guess things could be worse."<p>

Charles flicked his gaze from the damp grey and green scenery passing outside his window to look at his sister.

"What do you mean?"

Raven sighed and met her brother's gaze, "We could still be living with Him."

Charles quickly glanced at their aunt and uncle in the front seat to make sure they hadn't heard their conversation but it seemed they were engrossed in discussing the relative merits of the new car they were travelling in versus those of their old, and dare he say it almost decrepit, banger. Although they had a rough idea of what had gone on in the Xavier-Marko household over the past couple of years, they did not know the full extent of what they had lived with and Charles planned on keeping it that way for as long as possible. To his 11 year old mind, he thought that now they were away from there, they would be safe and he would not have to tell anyone the full extent of the hell they had survived. What he didn't realise is that things rarely turn out how you expect, but that is a story for another day.

As the memories threatened to overwhelm him, he was snapped back to the interior of the car by his aunt turning to face them.

"I hope you two like it here, I know your father loved it and so did I. But if you don't then we'll find somewhere else. We don't want you two to feel like you don't have a say in it." Their aunt had always been like that, letting them have their say, much like their father had, from what little Charles and Raven could remember of him. They had only been 5 when he died in a car crash and their mother had effectively 'gone off the deep end' as their aunt had once described it. It was at that time they moved to America and two years later were introduced to Karl Marko.

Raven seemed to be relishing in their change of circumstance, it was no secret that they had both wanted to go to boarding school in England like their father, although their reasoning changed as the years went on. However she was still a very shy child and often suffered from low self-esteem and confidence, "I hope they like me."

"Oh sweetie, I'm sure they will! How could they not like you? Just be yourself and I'm sure you'll have lots of friends in no time."

"Don't worry; they'd be mad not to like you Raven." Charles leant across the seat and took hold of his twin sister's hand in an attempt to calm himself as much as it was to help her. He would never say it, but he shared similar thoughts and for once he revelled in worrying about regular first day of school things like 'normal' children did.

Raven simply smiled at her brother and squeezed his hand in response. Their uncle said that they would soon be arriving at their destination so they both went back to looking at the scenery that had changed from a seemingly endless stream of green and brown as they drove through the English countryside to what appeared to be a small town filled with a variety of buildings, both old and new but mainly old.

A minute or so after they left the old but new town their uncle pulled off into a driveway with a sign on each side declaring it to be 'The Candleford Manor School – for day and boarding students ages 11 - 18'.

_Here goes nothing!_


	2. First Introductions and a Goodbye

**First things first, I'm sorry this chapter took so long to write! I hate introducing people at the start of the story anyway but I've been really busy working and saving the pennies for my last year at uni which hasn't left much free time to write. **

**I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited and alerted this story, it means a lot to me! **

**I've now put the poll on my profile about whether the children should have/develop their mutant powers so please check that out and let me know. I'm also on twitter so feel free to follow me, I often post about my stories on my ff one. **

**And thank you to sph9swc for beta-ing this chapter for me!**

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><p>As the car reach the top of the driveway Charles took the opportunity to gaze out of the tinted windows at the place that would be his home for the next 9 months. What he assumed was the main building was obviously old; it had probably belonged to a very wealthy aristocratic family that had met an unfortunate end of some description. It was made of what appeared to be red brick with a slate roof and plenty of windows. There was a large gravelled area out the front which seemed to be the car park with several gravelled pathways leading off it and into the trees and grounds.<p>

Once his uncle had parked the car and they got out, Charles noted that the paths lead to other buildings which were most likely the dormitories and any other buildings a school needed to function properly. Charles walked with his uncle as they followed his aunt and sister up the steps into the main building. The foyer was huge with several doors leading off it and a large staircase at the end of it that seemed to wrap around a chandelier hanging from the very high ceiling. They entered what he assumed was the school's reception to see a woman in her mid-to-late-forties typing away at a computer while a younger woman, most likely her assistant was busily answering the phone. The elder of the two women looked up as they entered the office and smiled.

"Is this where we register?" Raven had grabbed her aunt's hand when they had entered the building; it seems her shyness had already begun to reveal itself.

"Yes it is, what is the child's name?"

Raven spoke up from beside her aunt, "R-Raven and Charles Xavier, miss."

The woman began rifling through a large stack of envelopes beside her on the desk. "Xavier… Xavier… Ah, here we go." She prised two of the envelopes out from the bottom of the pile and handed them to Raven and Charles.

"I'm Mrs Green, the school receptionist. In the envelopes there should be your timetables, form groups and tutors and a map of the school grounds to help you find your way for the first few days, students tend to work out where they need to be fairly quickly. All first and second years are placed in rooms of 5 in one of two buildings. Miller House is the girls' boarding house and the boys' is Bishops House next door." Both of the children had begun searching through their envelopes and pulling out the sheets of paper as Mrs Green mentioned them.

"First and second years are only allowed to use mobile phones on the weekends, not during the school week, so if you have any problems or want to call your family during the week you should either see your Boarding House Parents or come and see us here and we can arrange for you to call your parents. If…" Mrs Green's next words died in her throat as she noticed the children's reaction to her last couple of words. Both children paled at the mention of their parents. Raven had once again grabbed hold of her aunt's hand while their uncle placed his arm around Charles' shoulders to give the boy some support.

Their uncle cleared his throat, "They no longer live with their parents, we're their legal guardians now."

"I'm Cathy Johnson and this is my husband Tim. I'm their father's sister."

"Oh… oh well then, if you children ever want to call your aunt and uncle then you just need to come and see us or talk to your Boarding House parents. If you feel ill then you need to see the School's Matron and she will excuse you from lessons if she feels that it's necessary. Now on Tuesdays there is…" Mrs Green continued on for another couple of minutes about the general information in the day-to-day running of the school but Charles soon blocked her out, he was sure that they would be told all of this time and time again over the first few days of the term.

After what seemed like hours but in reality was only a few minutes they thanked Mrs Green and left the school office to try to find the boarding houses Charles and Raven had been allocated to. Raven had already taken the map of the school grounds out of her information pack and was pointing down one of the gravel paths to a collection of buildings where there seemed to be lots of people milling about.

They soon had the two children's suitcases and school rucksacks out of the car and started making their way toward their boarding houses. Once they had passed the trees that seemed to surround this side of the main building they came to a series of buildings ranging in age and appearance from the new to the fairly old to the very old, but none looked as old as the main building. They had obviously been built at various times over the years to accommodate a growing student intake. Two of the older buildings stood to the right of the path Charles and his family had just come down and Charles could see from where he stood that the one nearest to them had a plaque on the front declaring it to be Bishops House. It was joined to the building next to it, Miller House he presumed, by what looked like a large conservatory but from this angle Charles couldn't see what was in it. In front of the two buildings stood a gentleman who was probably in his late-twenties holding a clipboard next to a boy and a girl who were probably older students. As the four approached they were greeted by the man.

"Hi there, I'm Paul Jones. I'm one of the Boarding House Parents. These are the House Prefects Jessica and Will. We're here if you need any help finding you room or getting around the school grounds."

Raven once again stepped up, it seemed that she was doing everything she could to overcome her shyness that day. "I'm Raven Xavier and this is my brother Charles. We're both new here."

Mr Jones consulter his clipboard, "Ok Raven you are in Miller House, room 7, and Charles you are in Bishops, room 10. They're both on the second floor and, barring any issues with your roommates, they'll be your rooms for your first two years with us. Now would you like any help getting your stuff upstairs? We've managed to coerce the sixth formers who arrived yesterday into helping the new arrivals today."

Their aunt and uncle decided that Tim would take the heavier of the two suitcases, Raven's, to her room and the prefect Will offered to carry Charles' upstairs for Cathy while Jessica took Raven's bag. The family agreed to meet back out the front to say goodbye once they'd found the children's rooms. Cathy and Tim had already told the twins that they would leave them to unpack and sort out their clothing and possessions in peace. Cathy remembered how annoying she had found it when her own parents had fussed about her room on her first day at Candleford so that they gave the impression of being caring to the other parents; but it wasn't exactly the best first impression to give your roommates.

By the time they had managed to navigate the busy staircase and corridors to get to Charles' room, Will was starting to struggle with the heavy case. Although he had only brought a very few personal items, the majority of his treasured possessions remaining at their aunt and uncle's house because he did not want to risk them getting damaged or stolen in his dorm, Charles had brought a couple of his father's favourite books with him.

As the trio walked through the door of room 10 which was located at the opposite end of the corridor to the staircase and Will gave them a quick briefing for the room, Charles noted that the room had five beds with their own bedside cabinet, each of which had a lock on it ("So you can lock away any valuables or food you brought with you"), a wardrobe that spanned half of the one of room's walls with five doors ("One each") and there were two chest of drawers, each containing five drawers ("Two each"). The room was large with three of the beds headboards resting against one wall, one bed was in the corner of the room next to the wardrobe facing the other three and the last bed was next to the door facing the window.

There were two other boys in the room when they arrived. A tall boy with brown hair and glasses was storing books in his bedside cabinet while another redheaded boy was trying to persuade his mum that she didn't need to unpack for him and seemed embarrassed by her hovering. They had both chosen the two of the beds in the row of three that were nearer the door so Charles chose the last bed of the three nearest the window. Charles and Will dropped what they had been carrying on Charles' new bed so that no one else would try to claim it. They quickly thanked Will for his help before he left to see if anyone else needed help. Obviously the redheaded boy decided to try to get away from his mother's constant checking that he had everything that he could ever need and came over to introduce himself.

"Hi, I'm Sean Cassidy."

"Charles Xavier. This is my aunt Cathy Johnson, my uncle's helping my sister take her stuff to her room." After a few minutes of introductions and idle chit chat between his aunt and Sean's mum, they excused themselves to go back downstairs so that they could say goodbye.

Once they were back outside the boarding houses they soon found Raven and Tim, they were stood slightly to one side so that they weren't in the way of the people that were dropping off their children for the year. Both children hugged their aunt and uncle with promises to call or email them at least once a week and to stay out of trouble but have fun and make lots of friends.

Raven grabbed Charles' hand as they watched the only family they had walk back to the car and drive off.


End file.
